Hookworm vs. Tapeworm — What's the Difference?

Hookworms are intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with poor access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Any of various long segmented parasitic flatworms of the class Cestoda that lack a digestive system and have hooks or suckers for attaching to the intestines of vertebrates, including humans. Also called cestode.

Any of numerous small parasitic nematode worms of the family Ancylostomatidae having hooklike mouthparts with which they fasten to the intestinal walls and suck the blood of humans and other animals.

(countable) Any parasitical worm of the class or infraclass Cestoda, which infest the intestines of animals, including humans, often infecting different host species during their life cycle.

Any of various parasitic bloodsucking roundworms which cause disease, especially the species Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus, having hooked mouthparts and entering their hosts by boring through the skin.

(countable) A broad fish tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium latum.

Parasitic blood-sucking roundworms having hooked mouth parts to fasten to the intestinal wall of human and other hosts

(uncountable) Infection by tapeworms.

Infestation of the intestines by hookworms which enter the body (usually) through the skin

Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Tænia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvæ (see Cysticercus) live in the flesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal of the right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine. See Illustration in Appendix.

Ribbon-like flatworms that are parasitic in the intestines of humans and other vertebrates